‘Lust, Caution’: Sexy, Boring

Tagline (in onscreen titles rather than spoken aloud): “To kill the enemy, she would have to capture his heart, and break her own.”

Translation: Action! Romance! A total lack of English-language dialogue!

The Gist: Ang Lee’s first movie following his Oscar win for Brokeback Mountain is a spy thriller that takes place in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. The focus in this elegant trailer — set completely to a lush score that recalls forties studio romances — is on the beautiful faces of its co-stars, Tony Leung and Tang Wei, who spend significant amounts of time staring at each other and, affectingly, directly into the camera. A brief sex scene gives the trailer some sizzle but can’t mask the ugly commercial truth: As gorgeous as this movie might be, it’s still a period piece full of actors that most Americans haven’t heard of speaking a language most Americans can’t understand. That’s why the trailer reminds us that Ang Lee also directed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which just happens to be the last such movie most Americans enjoyed.